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Crazy Water Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley, £15.99). A
sure test of a good cookbook is flicking through it and finding on every
page things you want to cook, and more importantly eat, right now. The
Telegraph columnist Diana Henry’s Crazy Water Pickled Lemons, in a smart new
edition, fulfils that criterion. This is a collection of her dishes derived
from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa, including celestial
Ice in Heaven, a superior rice pudding; lamb and orange khoresh; socca with
sardines and tomatoes; cardamom baked figs; and plums with pannacotta. Jason
Lowe’s photography helps, of course, but so does Henry’s trick of
matching up recipes with quotes from people such as Gide and Pablo Neruda. A
thoroughly classy production altogether. Ruby grapefruit and Campari granita
makes a very grown-up pudding.

Ruby grapefruit and Campari granita

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

500ml freshly squeezed ruby

grapefruit juice

150g caster sugar

75ml Campari

Gently heat the juice with the sugar until the sugar has melted. Leave to
cool.

Add the Campari and pour the liquid into a wide shallow container and put in
the freezer. After about an hour, fork the crystals forming round the edge
into the rest of the juice. Keep doing this at intervals, forking the slush to
break it up as it freezes. Serve in glasses.